Escaped psych patient captured in Stockton

A violent offender who escaped from a mental institution in Hawaii and flew to California was apprehended Wednesday morning in Stockton, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

Randall Toshio Saito, 59, was arrested in the vicinity of state Highway 99 and Waterloo Road around 10:30 a.m. as a result of a tip deputies received from a taxi driver.

Federal agents from the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service have been searching for Saito since news that he’d fled to the Bay Area began to circulate. Hawaiian Attorney General Doug Chin issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

Saito escaped from the Hawaii State Hospital on Oahu around 9 a.m.

Sunday, caught a flight to Maui and then flew to California, according to Maui police.

Wayne Tashima, a Honolulu prosecutor, called Saito a “dangerous” man who committed a gruesome homicide in 1979, killing a woman and leaving her body in the trunk of a vehicle.

The crime scene was discovered because of blood dripping out of the trunk, Tashima said.

Saito was also diagnosed with necrophilia, a sexual attraction to dead bodies, Tashima said.